The Calvert County Photography Club met on Saturday, August 19, 2017

Gloria Occhipinti

Karl explained that there are a lot of components to Lightroom. Today we just went over the basics. Lightroom is like a database. It allows you to organize and edit your photos as well as to create slideshows or photo books.

First of all, obtaining Lightroom (LR) can be done through Adobe Creative Cloud at https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography.html Ther.e are different bundles of programs available, but the photography package includes Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC as well as Bridge CC. The cost is $9.99 per month and includes all periodic updates.

One thing to remember is that Lightroom does not move, copy, or change the original photo in any way. It is a nondestructive editing program which allows you to make changes to a preview version so that you can see what the final image will look like after editing. Lightroom then stores a record of all of the changes you have made to a picture in a separate file called the Catalog. Lightroom contains the following modules: Library, Develop, Map, Book, Slideshow, Print, and The Web. The Library and Develop modules are the two core modules that most people will use the most.

The library is there to help you organize and manage your photographs. You will find, import, sort, and organize your photos all through the Library module. The navigation options are located on the left side panel. This panel gives you access to all images in your current Catalog. Your Catalog in Lightroom is all of the pictures that Lightroom has access to. The Lightroom Catalog file contains only information, however. The actual images are NOT being stored in the Lightroom Catalog. Lightroom is just referencing those images at a particular location on your hard drive. Therefore, if you move your photos to a different location on your hard disk, Lightroom will not be able to find them. This is important to know and understand!

First, however, you must import your images into Lightroom. (And by “import” I mean you are importing the location of the images, NOT the actual images themselves.) You can do this by clicking on the Import button on the bottom left of the Library module. This will bring up another window showing the contents of your hard drive which you will see on the left side of the screen. Next, find where the images you want to Import are located and click on the file you want. Those images will then be displayed as thumbnails. You can uncheck any images that you do NOT want to import. Once you have done this just click on Import at the bottom right-hand side of the screen and all of the checked images will then be Imported into your Lightroom catalog.

The central portion of the Library Module is the image display. You can choose to view your pictures in a resizeable grid or one at a time. The right side panel is your metadata tool where you can add keywords and copyright information. Keywords make finding certain images easier, and multiple keywords can be added by separating each word with a comma.

The next module is the Develop module which is where you can edit your images. You can bring up an image you want to work on by locating and clicking on it while in the Library module and then clicking on Develop at the top right side of the screen. At the left side of the Develop window, there are various presets that you can try if you like. Your History panel is also located on the left. On the right side are a series of panels such as Basic, Tone Curve, Tone Splitting, Detail, Lens Corrections, and more where you can make your adjustments to exposure, contrast, highlights and shadows, as well as sharpening, color adjustments and more. Once you are done your basic editing in Lightroom, you can right-click on the photo and choose Edit in Photoshop, Topaz, Nik Software, etc. to continue making other adjustments.

The Map module allows you to geotag, or input the location of where the photograph was taken. The book allows you to make your images into a book that you can have printed or published. Slideshow lets you quickly set up a slideshow of images for your friends, family, or clients to view. With the Print module, you can specify the print size and location on the paper, add watermarks, and apply print sharpening. You can also specify the color profile of your particular printer. And finally, the Web module lets you create an online gallery in various formats. There are several layout styles and presets/templates to choose from and each is customizable.